Everything is hidden but the tabs, but is all accessible via the default keyboard shortcuts. ⌘-T opens and selects a new, empty tab; ⌘-L shows and selects the location bar; I type something in there and hit return; the location bar hides again and the tab loads the URL I entered (or search term, in the Google box). My most-visited sites are in the bookmarks bar, all reachable via ⌘-(1-9), and Facebook is my homepage (⌘-Shift-H). Shortwave is on ⌘-5 though I haven’t gotten used to using that yet.
John Holdun details his minimal Safari setup - How I Browse.